Methods and systems for inspection and/or identification of pellet-shaped articles

ABSTRACT

A conveyer mechanism ( 110 ) may include one or more composition inspection units provided along the intended product transport path. The product&#39;s composition, e.g., it&#39;s ink composition, is compared with a predetermined standard, to determine whether the product is acceptable. A bar code ( 48, 45.1, 47.1, 85 ) may be provided to an external surface of the article for identification/traceability purposes.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO APPLICATION

U.S. non-provisional patent application Ser. No. 10/705,821, filed Nov.13, 2003, is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to processing of pellet-shaped articles,for example, pharmaceuticals such as caplets and tablets. In particular,the present invention relates to methods and systems for inspectingand/or identifying pharmaceutical articles.

2. Description of Related Art

Inspection of pellet-shaped articles is known in the art. Inspectionunits are typically configured to inspect and remove pellet-shapedarticles from a conveyer mechanism that have been improperly processedin a previous processing operation. Previous processing operations mayinclude marking the pellet-shaped articles with printing indicia,coloring the pellet-shaped articles, laser drilling holes in thepellet-shaped articles, and/or gel-coating the pellet-shaped articles.These processing operations are typically completed upstream from theinspection unit such that the inspection unit may inspect if theseprocesses have been properly completed.

One concern among manufacturers is to ensure that the composition of thepellet-shaped articles remains consistent. For example, the introductionof foreign substances into one or more of the pellet-shaped articlesthat may cause harm to the patient.

In another example, a variety of known devices have been developed forapplying a gel coating to pellet-shaped articles. Typically, thepellet-shaped articles, e.g., tablets, capsules, caplets and pills, arecoated by having one side of the pellet-shaped article coated at a time.Often, due to a processing error, one or both sides of the pellet-shapedarticle are not coated at all, or one side of the pellet-shaped articleis coated twice. As a result, the pellet-shaped article has at least oneside that is not properly coated with gel. It is important for themanufacturer to carefully inspect the pellet-shaped articles fordefects, such as an improperly coated side of the article, before thepellet-shaped article is distributed to the consumer so as to ensure thequality of the product and hence protect the safety of the consumer. Anexample of an inspection unit is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,085,510.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,894,801 to Ackley, Jr., incorporated herein by referencein its entirety, describes a method and apparatus for conveying aplurality of pellet-shaped articles, such as pharmaceuticals. Theconveyer conveys the pharmaceuticals past one or more article modifyingdevices, such as a laser that forms in the pharmaceuticals drilled orblind bore holes that act as a mechanical time-release mechanism. Lasersare known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,376,771, incorporated herein by referencein its entirety.

Furthermore, the tracking and/or identification of pharmaceuticalarticles is typically carried out by use of bar coding, etc., which isprovided on packaging for the article. For example, blister packagingoften includes a bar code that is provided to the outer foil layer ofthe blister packaging. While bar coding is useful, it is open to error,e.g., the wrong article could potentially inserted into to wrong blisterpackage, in which case the blister package would not carry the correctinformation. Moreover, once the article is removed from the blisterpackage, the bar coding on the package may become meaningless especiallyin an environment, e.g., hospitals, pharmacies, etc., where multiplearticles with different medicines are being handled or dispensed.

Accordingly, a need has developed in the art to provide one or moreinspection/identification systems to address the concerns describedabove.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One aspect of the invention relates to an improved inspection unit forinspecting pellet-shaped articles from a conveyer mechanism. Theinspecting unit may take the form of a sensor to analyze the totalcomposition and/or various isolated compositions of each article.

Another aspect of the invention relates to a pellet-shaped articleprovided with an identifier. The identifier may be provided directly toa surface of the article, and may take the form of a machine-readablecode, e.g., a bar code.

Other aspects, features, and advantages of this invention will bedescribed in or become apparent from the following detailed descriptionwhen taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which are apart of this disclosure and which illustrate, by way of example,principles of this invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings facilitate an understanding of the variousembodiments of this invention. In such drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an apparatus to convey pellet-shapedarticles according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 2 and 3 are alternative conveyer systems according to embodimentsof the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating a tablet-shaped articleaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view illustrating a caplet or capsule-shapedarticle according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate examples of bar codes according to aspects ofthe present invention;

FIG. 7A illustrates a further embodiment according to the presentinvention; and

FIG. 8 illustrates a spin printer according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Conveyer Mechanism

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a transporting and processing apparatus110 according to an illustrative embodiment of the present invention. Inone example, the transporting and processing apparatus includes aconveyer loop 112 which is entrained about a pair of sprockets 114A and114B to travel along a transport path in a direction indicated by anarrow B. Other configurations are also contemplated. A dispenser 116,e.g., a hopper, is disposed over the conveyer loop 112 and dispensesarticles onto the conveyer loop 112. The articles can be edible ornon-edible including confectioneries, non-confectioneries, candies,food, pharmaceuticals or any other discreet type articles. Severaldispensers are well known in the art and may be used in embodiments ofthe present invention, including but not limited to hoppers, rollers andfeed dispensers.

The dispenser 116 is positioned adjacent the sprocket 114A which causesthe conveyer loop 112 to follow along a predetermined radius ofcurvature. The conveyer loop 112 travels around a curvilinear path madeup of substantially linear sections and substantially non-linearsections, e.g., where the sprockets 114A and 114B are located.

After the dispenser 116 dispenses the articles to the conveyer loop 112,the articles are transported past one or more processing stations 118and 120. The processing stations may be drilling stations, printingstations or any other process which can be applied to modify theappearance and/or shape of the articles. The processing stations 118 or120 perform first and second processes on the articles which arecoordinated with another, e.g., using a controller 110.1. For example,the first processing station 118 may be a first printer and the secondprocessing station 120 may be a second printer that serially printcomponent images of a composite image on the articles in registeredrelationship with one another. The processing stations 118 and 120 arepreferably located on a portion of the conveyer loop 112 which issubstantially linear or not less than a predetermined radius ofcurvature.

The conveyer loop 112 transports the article towards the sprocket 114Bwhere the articles are inspected by an inspection unit 125. Followinginspection, acceptable and non-acceptable articles are separated fromone another. For example, rejected articles may be released into adrop-off bin 122, while acceptable articles may be directed to an acceptbin 123 or suitable post processing receptacles, such as a blisteredpackage, etc. Of course, the acceptable articles may be routed to thebin 122, while the non-acceptable articles could be routed to bin 123(i.e., “forcibly” instead of “passively” rejected). The conveyer loop112 follows this cycle to pick up additional articles from the dispenser116. The articles may be maintained in a predetermined position, e.g.,using the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,314,876 to Ackley, Jr.,incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

The above embodiment is only for the purposes of illustration, as otherconfigurations for the transport loop and inspection unit are within thescope of the invention. For example, see the ramp-type conveyer and theinspection units as described in U.S. non-provisional patent applicationSer. No. 10/705,821.

The inspection unit 125 can take the form of a near infrared (NIR)spectrometry apparatus, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,679,954 and5,900,634, each incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.However, other types of inspection units are possible as well. Theinspection unit 125 is structured to determine the composition of anexposed side of the articles A. In one embodiment, in which theprocessing stations 118, 120 are printers, the inspection unit 125 isconfigured to determine whether the composition of printing indicia oneach of the articles falls within given parameters, i.e., the sensedcomposition is compared against a predetermined standard. For example,the predetermined standard for a given printed article may be 1-4%printed indicia, while the remaining 96-99% of the article consists ofmedicine, coatings, etc. The controller may generate a signal indicatingthat an article is acceptable if the sensed printed indicia is greaterthan 90-95% of the predetermined standard. In addition, the inspectionunit may analyze the printed indicia to determine its composition, andcompare the sensed composition against a predetermined standard for thecomposition. Such an analysis would not necessarily entail an analysisof the amount of printed indicia as a percentage of the total volume orweight of the article.

Furthermore, the inspection unit 125 may include logic or software whichcan provide an indication of whether the size, shape and consistency ofthe printed indicia is proper. Moreover, the printed indicia maycomprise a first predetermined characteristic, while the shape, size,etc., may comprise a second predetermined characteristic.

In another example, first processing station 118 may be a printer, whilethe second processing station 120 may be a laser drilling station. Inthis event, the inspection unit 125 may be configured to sense printingindicia and/or percentage composition of laser drilled holes, to providea signal to controller 110.1 for comparison against the respectivestandard.

In the case of a laser drilled hole, one or more of the inner layers ofthe article may be exposed. In this event, it may be possible to obtainspectral analysis of not only the outer surface of the article, toinspect for the composition of, e.g., gel coating and/or printedindicia, but also to inspect the various layers of the article that aresubject to laser drilling, to analyze the composition of such layer orlayers.

FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate further embodiments of the present invention,in which a drum feed printer can also be used to sense both sides of anarticle, e.g., a tablet. For example, the article can be flipped overwhen being transferred from one drum to another drum.

As shown in FIG. 2, a drum feed system 200 includes a hopper 202containing a plurality of articles to be processed, e.g., drilled,inspected, provided with indicia, etc., on one or both sides. Articles204 from the hopper 202 have first and second sides with first andsecond predetermined characteristics that may be different from oneanother. For example, the sides may have a different color, and/or bothsides may have a coating. A first inspection unit 206 is provided tosense the first side of the article as it is carried by a first feeddrum 208 converging the article along a conveying path. A second feeddrum 210 receives the article A from the first feed drum 208 to exposethe second side of the article A to processing. A second inspection unit212 inspects the second side of the article. The second feed drum 210feeds the article to a conveyer mechanism 214, similar to that describedabove in relation to FIG. 1. The conveyer mechanism 214 may include oneor more processing stations 216, 218, a third inspection unit 220, andsuitable reject and accept bins 222, 224 like those shown in FIG. 1.

Further processing stations 226, 228 may be provided on the first andsecond feed drums 208, 210, respectively. For example, processingstations 226, 228 may provide coatings to the first and second sides ofthe article, while the processing station 216 provides indicia, e.g.,printing, and the processing station 218 drills holes for time releasepurposes.

The first, second and third inspection units may be in the form of NIRspectroscopy sensors, as described above. The first inspection unit 206may sense a composition of the first side of the article, the secondinspection unit 212 may sense a composition of a second side of thearticle, and the third sensor 220 can sense the first side again, afterthe operation of processing stations 216 and 218. Each inspection unitmay relate to the overall composition in comparison to the overallarticle, or each may relate to an isolated composition, e.g., printingindicia, gel coating, or laser drilling, etc. Moreover, the third unit220 may sense the overall composition, while the first and second units206, 212 may be configured for comparing only isolatedcharacteristics/compositions. In addition, it should be noted that unit206 can be eliminated as unit 220 inspects the same side of the article,although both are preferred for best results.

FIG. 3 shows a feed drum system which is similar to that shown in FIG.2, and like reference numbers have been used to indicate like parts.However, the first feed drum 208 in FIG. 3 receives the articles 204 ina manner that seats the articles generally in the correct position. Thearticles are more accurately seated in the second feed drum 210, while athird feed drum 230 serves to re-expose the first side of the articlefor inspection/processing.

Bar Coding of Pellet-Shaped Articles

FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate pellet-shaped articles that can be providedwith a bar code. FIG. 4 schematically shows a tablet type article 44,which may be generally round, oval or lentil shaped and include a topsurface 45 and a bottom surface 47, possibly made of dissimilarmaterials that are bonded to one another. Either or both of the surfaces45, 47 may be provided with a bar code 48.

In one embodiment, the edge 51 of the article 44 could be provided witha pair of bar codes 45.1, 47.1. The bar codes 45.1 and 47.1 could beprovided to the top and bottom surfaces 45, 47, respectively, before thesurfaces are bonded to one another. If the codes 45.1, 47.1 do not matchupon bonding, then the product would be rejected.

FIG. 5 shows a capsule or caplet 80 having first and second ends 82, 84.End 84 includes a circumferential bar code 85. Bar code 85 is formedsuch that the bars within the code extend about the circumference of thearticle. This is advantageous because the bar code can be read at anycircumferential position of the article. Of course, the bar code can beformed such that the bars in the code wrap around the article in themanner shown in FIG. 4, i.e., parallel to the main longitudinal axis ofthe article.

In general, bar codes can include information to uniquely identify theproduct. For example, the bar code may include information regarding themanufacturer, batch, lot, time/date of manufacture, composition (e.g.,the standard composition for the medicine, printing indicia, gelcoating, laser drilled holes, etc.) etc. The bar code may includegeneral information about the product as well. The bar code is machinereadable by a scanner that may have access to a database that can beprovided locally or remotely. Bar codes can take many forms, such as theexamples provided in FIGS. 6 and 7. For example, the bar codes shown inFIGS. 4 and 5 may be any one or combination of a linear bar code, astacked bar code, a 2D code, a uniform product code, a micro PDF code, aSmart code, an RSS limited code, an RSS limited composite code, an RSSstacked code, an RSS expanded code, and an RSS expanded composite code.

The bar code may be applied to the article by contact or non-contactprinting. In one example, the articles can be laser etched into thesurface of the article. In one application, the bar code is invisible tothe naked eye. For example, the articles may be provided with a clearcoating, and the bar code provided by etching or removing a portion ofthe clear coating in the shape of a bar code. In another example, thelaser may use a stencil having cut outs in the shape of a bar code. Instill another example, each article includes a photo resist layer in theshape of the negative image of the bar code. In yet another example, thebar code may be provided by use of an environmentally sensitivecomposition or coating that reacts when stimulated with certain light,temperature, etc.

FIG. 7A illustrates a partial cross sectional view of a portion of apellet-shaped article A, e.g., a tablet, capsule, or caplet, that usesone or more of the above techniques to form the bar code. Article Aincludes a base substrate A1 that includes, e.g., medicine. One or morelayers A2, A3 are provided over substrate A1. For example, layer A2 maybe in the form of a secondary medicine, while layer A3 may be in theform of a coating, e.g., a sugar coating and/or gel coating. Of course,layers A2 and A3 are optional and not necessary. In another example,layer A3 may be in the form of a clear coating, as described above.

The outmost layer, in this case A3, is provided with a plurality ofcutouts C1, C2, C3 that correspond to the shape of a bar code, e.g., thebar codes shown in FIGS. 6-7. Cutouts can be created using a laser. Asshown, cutouts C1 and C2 extend to but do not extend past the layer A2,although cutouts extending into layer A2, or even layer A1, are alsocontemplated. In this event, the cutouts could form not only a bar code,but could also function as a time release mechanism to slowly releasemedicine from layers A1 and/or A2. Layers A1 and/or A2 can be made witha dark color composition, in comparison with layer A3, to increasecontrast and facilitate reading of the bar code. Of course, it may bedesirable to conceal the bar code, in which case the layers A1, A2and/or A3 can be made of the same color. In an alternative, cutouts canextend only partially through the layer, e.g., see cutout C3.

FIG. 8 illustrates a bar code printing unit 10 according to anembodiment of the present invention. This embodiment includes a spinprinting unit 100 which operates substantially as described in relationto U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,347, incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety. Spin printer 10 includes a series of drums 18, 20, 22 whichoperate in a known manner to orient and print capsules or caplets. Inthe printing position, e.g., at drum 22, a printing unit 24 is providedto apply a machine-readable bar code to the articles, which results inan article (caplet/capsule) like that shown in FIG. 5. Transfer drum 76imparts a spin on articles A, such that the bar code can be providealong the circumference of articles.

Of course, printer unit 24 could provide conventional printing indiciaas well. In another alternative, a laser unit 22.1 could be provided onthe inside of drum 22 to provide the bar code indicia as the articlesspin, in which case printing unit 24 may or may not be present/operable.In one embodiment, the bar code is provided along the entirecircumference of the article, although only a fraction of thecircumference could be used. Also, the bar code could be provided in aspiral along the product axis.

As shown in FIG. 8, one or more of the drums 18, 20, 22 can be providedwith an NIR sensor 18.2, 20.2, and/or 22.2 for the purposes describedabove.

It can thus be appreciated that the objectives of the present inventionhave been fully and effectively accomplished. The foregoing specificembodiments have been provided to illustrate the structural andfunctional principles of the present invention and are not intended tobe limiting. To the contrary, the present invention is intended toencompass all modifications, alterations, and substitutions within thespirit and scope of the present invention.

1-12. (canceled)
 13. A pellet-shaped article including at least oneexposed surface including at least one bar code.
 14. A pellet-shapedarticle according to claim 13, wherein the at least one bar code isselected from at least one of a linear bar code, a stacked bar code, a2D code, a uniform product code, a micro PDF code, a Smart code, an RSSlimited code, an RSS limited composite code, an RSS stacked code, an RSSexpanded code, and an RSS expanded composite code.
 15. A pellet-shapedarticle according to claim 13, wherein the bar code is invisible to thenaked eye.
 16. A pellet-shaped article according to claim 15, whereinthe bar code is provided by providing a clear layer on the article, andlaser etching the bar code into the clear layer.
 17. A pellet-shapedarticle according to claim 13, wherein the pellet-shaped articleincludes a lentil or tablet shape.
 18. A pellet-shaped article accordingto claim 13, wherein the pellet-shaped article has a capsule or capletshape, and the bar code is provided along a circumferential portion ofthe article.
 19. A pellet-shaped article according to claim 13, whereinthe article is a tablet including a first side, a second side and anedge joining the first and second sides, the edge including the barcode.
 20. A spin printer for providing bar codes on a surface of aplurality of capsules or caplets, the spin printer comprising: at leasta first drum unit that spins about a drum axis with each of saidcapsules or caplets carried by the first drum and having a product axisoriented substantially parallel to the drum axis, the first drum unitbeing structured to allow spinning of each product along the productaxis; and a bar code unit to provide a machine-readable bar code on acircumferential surface of each of the capsules or caplets as eachproduct is spun about the respective product axis.
 21. A spin printeraccording to claim 20, wherein the bar code unit includes at least oneof a contact printer and a non-contact printer.
 22. A spin printeraccording to claim 21, wherein the non-contact printer includes an inkjet printer.
 23. A spin printer according to claim 21, wherein thenon-contact printer includes a laser unit.
 24. A spin printer accordingto claim 23, wherein the laser unit includes a stencil having cut outsin the shape of the bar code.
 25. A spin printer according to claim 20,wherein the bar code is provided along the entire circumference of thearticle.
 26. A spin printer according to claim 20, wherein the bar codeis provided in a spiral along the product axis.
 27. A method forproviding identification to individual pellet-shaped articles, includingapplying a bar code to an external surface of each of the articles. 28.A method for providing identification to individual pellet-shapedarticles as claimed in claim 27, further comprising providing theexternal surface with a photo-resist layer and removing portions of thearticle to create the bar code, in conjunction with the patterning ofthe photo-resist layer.
 29. A method for providing identification to theindividual pellet-shaped articles as claimed in claim 27, furthercomprising providing the article with a clear layer onto which the barcode is provided, such that the bar code is invisible to the naked eye.